SeaTac Wage Proposition to go to Recount

Common Sense SeaTac, a political-action committee comprised of local businesses and residents in opposition of the SeaTac living wage measure, has issued a recount of the closely contested SeaTac Proposition 1.

Proposition 1 would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for all employees in the hospitality and transportation industries in the city of SeaTac, Wash., including Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Common Sense SeaTac’s committee will request King County recount the ballots on the measure, where only 77 votes separate the two sides with just over 6,000 votes cast.

“When an election is this close, everyone should be assured the outcome is as certain as possible,” said Scott Ostrander, co-chair of Common Sense SeaTac. “If there’s one thing we all learned from the 2004 recounts of the governor’s race, counting ballots has a margin of error like any other human endeavor. And we learned, too, recounts can change the result. So we are asking for a hand count of the ballots to get the most accurate possible count.”

According to Common Sense SeaTac, there were more votes cast on Prop 1 than in any other off-year election in SeaTac history. While the ‘yes’ side led on election night by 54%, the ‘no’ side led the subsequent counts by 53.4%.

Voters opposing the initiative were concerned it would hurt the city economically – by reducing jobs and tax revenues, constraining future growth, burdening taxpayers with enforcement costs and hurting local small businesses, says Common Sense SeaTac. Opponents also noted that 90% of the workers expecting to benefit did not live within the city of SeaTac, so benefits, if any, would be dispersed elsewhere.